Some collectors consider investment potential when buying antiques and collectibles. While not everyone agrees with this approach, a number of auctioneers and dealers gave their views on items with the most investment potential or that are currently “hot.” Auctioneers generally agree that today’s environment is much different from several years ago. Millennials—those people born between 1975 and 1995—have...

WorthPoint, the Internet’s largest resource for identifying and finding the value of subscribers’ art, antiques and collectibles, has announced the release of its new 2015 iOS app for iPad and iPhone, allowing antiques and collectibles enthusiasts access to the company’s huge online database of values records. [caption id="attachment_2522726" align="alignleft" width="300"] The new version of the WorthPoint app fixes...

There was a time when prosperous Americans eschewed durable consumer goods. Rarely would they buy a mass-produced sofa or dining set. Instead, they bought functional antiques that would hold their value from generation to generation and not be fodder for the dump in six or seven years. Take the DuPont’s of Delaware, for example. The Winterthur Museum (a...

On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the death of President Abraham Lincoln, we are reposting this article about a hidden message discovered scrawled inside the president’s pocket watch. An article posted by the Associated Press in March of 2009 immediately captured the imagination of our watch expert David Mycko, who wrote about the watch—a typical English Fusee...

It is the longest-serving national flag of the United States. Since July 4, 1960, after the addition of Hawaii as the 50th state, the flag of the United States with its 50 stars has served longer than the 48-star flag, the national standard from 1912 to 1959. [caption id="attachment_2522703" align="aligncenter" width="600"] One of three possible 51-star designs for...

Chinese Export Silver (1785-1940) is a much-forgotten, yet highly significant antique silver category. Early Chinese Export Silver was comprised mostly of faithful copies of comparable quality of British, American and European silver of the Georgian period, with silver content being up to half as much again as the originals. Probably most of the true masterpieces of Chinese Export...

Yes, that headline is correct, and I’d love to be able to say I was the one who found it. I didn’t, but the next best thing is for a friend of mine to have dug it up. He did, and I was able to see it and hold it myself. My friend, whose name I won’t mention...

In my business, I visit (and work at) a lot of estate sales and antique stores. It’s always amazing to see the number of vintage cookbooks that come up to the cash register. Usually, they are small and inexpensive, with recipes that were once popular but no longer fashionable (like casseroles and Jell-O salads). Often, they represent ethnic...

One of America’s most favorite pieces of furniture in the first half of the 19th century was that odd size table that usually sat in the hall and had a mirror in the lower section. What the thing was called is often and confused, as is what its original use. Old timers in the trade will call it...

中國出口銀器: 復活節的珍寶 Christianity has had a presence in China since the Tang Dynasty, including a significant influential Jesuit network, as well as Protestant missionaries, many of whom were Scottish. Yet, despite the long history, surviving Chinese Christian religious artefacts are extremely rare. During Passion Week and Eastertide, we explore this complex and at times violent history as well...